6A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY,APRIL 10,2003
Student learns patience at group home
By Megan Hickerson
mhickerson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Every face in the crowd and every name in the phonebook has a story behind it. Every week, Kansan writer Megan Hickerson tells the story of a randomly selected KU student.
Angela Luttrell has had more parenting experience than most University of Kansas students — but she doesn't have any kids.
Dan Nelson/Kansan
Luttrell worked for four months as a live-in parent for a girls group home. The Faces in the Crowd $8 per hour pay isn't what motivated Luttrell to parent eight young women at the Achievement Place for Girls in Lawrence.
Angela Luttrell, Orange County, Calif., senior, pauses before class at Robinson Center. After working in a girls group home in Lawrence for four months, Luttrell is graduating in May and plans to get a teaching job in New York City.
"I get involved because some of these girls have no mentors or mother figures in their lives," the Orange County, Calif., senior said. "I tried my best to compensate for what they were missing."
As a live-in parent, Luttrell was responsible for getting the girls ready for school, distributing their medications and entertaining them in the evening hours. Luttrell accompanied the girls to Oak Park Mall in Overland Park in December and encouraged them to purchase gifts for their families.
Not all members of Luttrell's family encouraged her to accept this time-consuming job.
"My dad didn't want me to do it because he thought it would be a distraction from my schoolwork," she said.
Because she had to be with the girls almost every evening of the week, Luttrell actually found more time to get studying done.
"It definitely restricted my evening life," Luttrell said.
Luttrell said it was often difficult to contain her emotions when conflicts arose, but she walked away from the job with more patience.
"There was lots of lying going on," she said. "I had to watch for drinking and smoking — some of them were pretty sneaky. They stand in your face and cuss at you. They just have to get it out of their systems."
Working at home for disadvantaged girls made Luttrell appreciate her own upbringing. The most difficult aspect for her was to see the girls who have been through the system several times.
"We had one girl who had been placed in over 20 homes in six years," she said. "I was really close to my family, so this really affected me."
Luttrell's sorority, Mu Sigma Upsilon, helped raise money by holding a concert at Raoul's to buy the girls' home a new dryer. Jennifer Boyce, Luttrell's sorority sister, was impressed with the time that Lutrell devoted to her job.
"She successfully handled 40 hours of working a week, plus, she is a full time student." Boyce,
Lenora senior, said. "I could never do it—I'd have a stress attack."
After she graduates with a communication studies major, and a Human Development and Family Life minor in May, Luttrell hopes to work for Teach For
America in New York City.
"I think that teaching will be a bit less intense because I won't be living in my work environment," she said.
Edited by Anne Mantey
Students bond on Asian-American trip
Car ride to Indiana starts Asian Week, Taste of Asia event
By Henry C. Jackson
cjackson@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Sometimes an exhausting, 9-hour car ride can be a good thing.
Witness the journey of the Asian American Student Union to Bloomington, Ind., last weekend.
Thirteen of AASU's members made the trek to the campus of the University of Indiana for a meeting of the Midwestern Asian American Student Union. The conference featured workshops on a variety of topics related to being an Asian-American college
student and featured social events.
Perhaps more important than the lessons learned at the conference where the bonds the car ride from Lawrence to Bloomington helped build.
"The whole trip made the group meld together more," said Bernard Tran, Overland Park junior. "Spending the weekend together prepared us for our upcoming events."
This week AASU is preparing for Asian week, six days of activities highlighting Asian culture that will culminate with Saturday's Teste of Asia.
John Tran, AASU's public relations co-chair, said preparing for Taste of Asia would require hard work and cooperation.
"Around this time of the year, it gets hectic," John Tran, Overland Park junior, said. "Taste of Asia is complex. Without good leadership, that event couldn't be pulled off at all."
John Tran said MAASU allowed group members to see what AASU needed to work on and what it was already doing well.
"The conference allowed us to see all the strengths and weaknesses of the people in the organization," he said.
While Taste of Asia and the other activities planned for Asian Week will require hard work, members of AASU's leadership aren't worried. Cindy Tran, Wichita junior, said the trip to Indiana prepared AASU
for Asian Week. She said strong bonds were important to pulling off a week's worth of activities and particularly Taste of Asia.
Cindy Tran said that bonding played a huge part in the event.
"Without that intimacy, we wouldn't be able to pull it off," Cindy Tran said.
Conor Meagher, Overland Park junior, said MAASU helped the members reconsider why they hosted activities.
"Looking at other organizations takes you back to the idea of purpose," he said. "To make things more about education, more about getting people to experience it."
Finding a tax professional to offer tax advice on April 9 is like trying to pin down a Santa Claus on Christmas Eve — nearly impossible.
Local tax adviser eases April stress
"Is there someone I could talk to briefly about tax returns?" I asked one secretary.
- Edited by Anne Mantey
"Not at this time of year," she laughingly replied.
Thankfully, the Internal Revenue Service has extensive guides and tips to help first-time filers through this, dare I say, taxing time.
And one Lawrence tax advisor, Walter Kihm, agreed to impart his wisdom on stumped students.
Whether you're new to the tax trials or revisiting a yearly torture, it's time to whip out the W-2s. 1040EZs and a pencil with a big eraser.
Do I have to file?
If you're single with no dependents, then you must file if you made more than $7,700 last year, according to the IRS.
Dependents are individuals who, as the name suggests, depend on you financially,such as a child. Your parents can claim you as a dependent if they provide more than half your support. They can also claim you if you are younger than 19 or younger than 24 and a student.
As a student working part-time, you may still have to file even if your parents claim you as a dependent. You must file if your unearned income is more than $750 or if your earned income is more than $4,700.
Kihm said there were benefits to filing even if your earned income didn't meet the minimum requirement. Anyone who had withholdings in 2002 should consider filing, he said. If you don't file, you won't get the refund.
What does it all mean?
Here are some common terms you may run into when filing your state or federal income tax return. A full tax glossary can be accessed at the Yahoo Finance Web site, taxes.yahoo.com.
Taxable income - your total income minus deductions and exemptions.
Earned income — wages, tips, bonuses, other employee compensation, and self-employment income, whether in the form of money, services, or
COMMON CENTS
Nicole Roche
nroche@kansan.com
property.
Earned income credit — a refundable tax credit based on earned income and gross income. If you are claimed as a dependent, you will not receive the credit.
Tip income — tips not reported to your employer. If you collect more than $20 in tips during one month, you must report it to your employer.
Unearned income - money received for the investment of money or other property, such as interest, dividends, and royalties. It also includes pensions, alimony, unemployment compensation and other income that is not earned.
Final words of wisdom
There are higher education exemptions available — but Kihm warns you should check with your parents to make sure they aren't already claiming you. If they are, you can't claim the exemption.
Keep last year's tax return handy as you enter the throes of this year's return. Kihm said if this year's tax return wasn't similar to last year's, you should want to know why. Comparing the two will make it easier to avoid mistakes.
E-filing is the future of tax returns, and Kihm said IRS is under a mandate from Congress to minimize its amount of paper usage. Kihm said it's unlikely that filing online could save the taxpayer much time, except maybe the time it takes to staple the forms together or place them in an envelope. He did say, however, that filing online will speed up any refund you may receive, especially if you have selected the direct deposit option.
If all else fails, CPAs and enrolled agents like Kihm can offer a four-month extension as long as students apply by April 15. Temporary - but relief nonetheless.
Nicole Roche is a Wichita senior in journalism. Each week she covers a different consumer issue.